Contacts

Group head: 

Jan Petrášek

Centre: 

Lysolaje

Address: 

Rozvojová 263, 165 02 Praha 6 - Lysolaje

Email: 

petrasekueb [dot] cas [dot] cz

Phone: 

+420 225 106 429

Fax: 

+420 225 106 456

www: 

Laboratory of Hormonal Regulations in Plants

About us

We are a medium-sized laboratory consisting of five working groups focused on the auxin transport and homeostasis, metabolism and physiological functions of cytokinins, interaction of plant hormones with the environment, modelling of phytohormone-mediated cellular processes and advanced analytics of phytohormones.

On both plant tissue culture and whole plant levels we follow mechanism of action of auxins and cytokinins and their multitude interactions. The spectrum of methods and approaches we use ranges from molecular biology (gene cloning and tagging, gene editing, transcription profiling, RNAseq), reverse and forward genetics, phenotyping on both cellular and whole plant levels, analytics of phytohormones and their metabolism, to advanced methods of fluorescence confocal microscopy. We always cordially welcome motivated students to work on their master and PhD theses, as well as young postdoc researchers from abroad.

Group of auxin transport (Leader: Jan Petrášek)

Our laboratory focuses on the molecular mechanism of polar auxin transport and on the ways of its regulation.

Polar auxin transport (PAT) is the process, in which plant hormone auxin is transported in cell-to-cell manner. The word “polar” refers to the fact that this type of transport is directional, either within the region of particular tissue or among tissues. Directionality of PAT is maintained by the interplay of diffusion and carrier-mediated transport of auxin across plasma membrane. The reason why PAT plays very important role in plant development is that it helps to establish auxin concentration gradients that subsequently regulate gene expression and also many other post-translational processes.

Our recent research is focused on the understanding of how plasma membrane-located and endomembrane auxin transporters contribute to the overall auxin homeostasis within the cells. More…

Group of metabolism and physiological function of cytokinins (Leader: Václav Motyka)

We are engaged in the research of cytokinins – plant hormones that regulate cell division and differentiation.

Cytokinins are naturally occurring phytohormones that act in concert with auxins to regulate cell division and differentiation and thus efficiently control plant growth and development. Transient enhancement of auxin in relation to cytokinin levels induces root formation while the opposite shift results in shoot formation. Re-establishment of the two hormone quantitative ratios (hormonal homeostasis) is essential for further development of induced events.

Our research is focused on the metabolic regulation of intra- and extracellular levels of cytokinins and their cooperation with auxins and other phytohormones to understand cytokinin physiological role in plants. We are especially interested in the study of pathways and mechanisms down-regulating cytokinin concentrations in plant cells. More…

Group of the role of phytohormones in the interaction with environment (Leader: Radka Vaňková)

We focus on the elucidation of plant defence mechanisms, with the aim to contribute to the development of effective strategies to enhance stress tolerance of plants.

Due to their sessile character, plants had to evolve complex systems of defence against and adaption to the variable and often unfavourable environmental conditions. These systems involve mechanisms to sense nutrient abundance or stress conditions and to generate and transduce signals, which result in modulation of transcription and translation profiles and subsequently of metabolism, leading to effective changes in growth and development. Character of the individual responses depends on the type of stress, its strength and duration, as well as on the physiological state of plant, its developmental stage and the strategy to cope with the particular stress.

Our main interest has been the evaluation of hormone functions in abiotic and biotic stress responses, namely their cross-talk, organ specificity and dynamics during stress progression. More…

Group of mathematical modelling (Leader: Klára Hoyerová)

We use mathematical modelling approach to unravel mechanisms regulating the auxin and cytokinins action in plants.

Mathematical modelling and similar computational approaches are getting increasingly popular in various fields of biology as they offer the possibility to combine multiple datasets and assay results in order to probe hypotheses or measure properties that cannot be addressed in a single experimental design. Down below, we show examples of studies where we employed mathematical modelling methods.

More...

Analytical unit (Leader: Petr Dobrev)

We improve the existing and develop the new analytical procedures for purification, quantitation and metabolic profiling of plant hormones and other bioactive substances of plant origin. More…